I'm the world's biggest idiot......Saturday my friend and I went flying (my second time at the controls), and besides the horribly foggy weather, the plane flew great and I did very well at the controls. We fly at an old abandoned airport, and I have a pickup truck that I use the tailgate as a platform for the plane and accessories. I've been using a full size 12 volt battery (trolling motor battery) to power the starter until my hobby box is built with a standard size rc battery. Anyway we flew for about an hour or so, and decided the fog was getting worse. So we brought his plane and my plane down, loaded up our trucks and took off. I was within a few miles of home when I had to hit the brakes relatively hard to avoid a car that pulled out in front of me. Guess where the unsecured battery went......You guessed it, right into the side of the tail section in the back of the pickup. When I looked at the damage I was horrified, nearly obliterated the whole tail. After a few choice words, I put the plane away and later looked at it. Most of the left rear fuselage was crushed, but after a few hours of epoxy, CA, and extra balsa this thing might actually fly again...Sorry this was so long, but don't be a fool and secure eveything in your vehicl when you transport your plane.

Flintlock,

Don't feel bad... A few weeks ago I was loading a brandy new scratch built powered glider into my car when a gust of wind came up between the house and the van and slammed the door closed. Just enough damage to cause to say may many bad words and justify a complete re-built of the tail...

So we have the equation tbus:

Neverflown Plane+Wind/vehicle door = language unsuitable for children and most sailors...

Ed

Just take it as a learning experience. Make sure you re-check the CG before flying. It may be tail heavy now do to all of the epoxy you used to repair the tail section.

Thanks guys for the support....I was sp proud of my flying, and had a great day even though we had to curtail the flying time due to the fog, when this happened. I will make sure to check the cg, although it was slightly nose heavy before, maybe she'll be right on now.

i had this happen the other day with my microjet, the batter moved just enough to crush the elevon a little, not bad tho.
but a bigger danger is if you've got a car with the rear seats down, if you crash you then have that 12V battery just waiting to fly forwards and hit you, followed closely by the flight box and tranny. maybe its just habbit, by my heavy items are on the other side of the car from me, unlucky passenger, spose i should put those items down behind the front seats....

......I like to use a cargo pipe (the type that is adjustable by screwing, or ratcheting the bar for a press fit between the truck's bed walls) to secure flight boxes and heavy stuff between the bar and the tailgate. I've seen folks use shower curtain rods to do the same, but I'm not too sure how secure these would hold back anything heavy should you have to really hit the brakes.

We all do some stupid things now and then. I have a sheet of plywood in the back of my short bed PU with a soft tounneau cover. (PIA by the way). On this ply wood I have a divider,(2X4), for field equipment etc on far left. Then I have a PVC pipe wing and fuse holder ANCHORED to the plywood to hold my plane and wing. I was still learning how to fly a couple years ago and had only one plane in the rack. NOW for the STUPID part........ I made a fast exit from my subdivision's street on the the main road and thought I heard a noise. The cars that had been bearing down on me were getting smaller in my mirrors. Why......?? They stopped!! Because the plywood sheet..... equipment and plane, slid out of the bed because some dumb ass didn't close the tail gate!!! As I pulled out, of course I turned sharp left to get into the lane. The plywood was like a surf board. The timing was there, and it stay flat and headed for the shoulder of the road. When I returned, (red faced), I could NOT believe my eyes!! The only thing that moved was the tail of the plane un-hooked from it's "U" shaped rack but was NOT damaged at all. The field box, and other junk was still on the board. My neighbor helped me get it back in the truck. To this day I still don't know how he kept a staight face!!! Soooooo, flintlock.... hope you feel better now! ...lownslo ...
Bob

Don't feel bad. I was on the way to the field one day with all my gliders in the front of the truck bed and all the winch batteries in the back for the second day of the glider contest. I was in contention to win and less than a mile from the field, someone locked up the brakes because they missed their turn and decided to back up to it. Needless to say, the gliders got crushed. not a good deal. Managed to fix the 2 meter and place with it, but the other was a total write off.
Bummer

Amazing how newcomers are always afraid of crashing, me, it always seemed I lost or damaged more planes in transporting than flying. By biggest fear when going to fly is not taking off or landing, it's getting the plane from the basement to the truck and to the field in one piece.

Few hazards I encountered:

Low beams in basement
Screen door and the freak gust of wind
Hatchback cylinders decide to give out
Truck in neutral and rolls
Letting your 6 month old Labrador "help"
Letting you buddies help while a new 1/4 warbird is up flying
Girls in bikini tops at the flying field
Bungee not secured on transporting rack in truck
Field box not supported
5 gal bottle of water in the back of the truck not
secured, creates the "steamroller effect"
and the final.....................Ceiling Fans!!!!!

I feel better already.....

yea, Roger dat on the ceiling fan, a 72 inch wing span became a 66 inch span in a second. That's what I get for carrying a wing through the living room.

Flintlock, thanks for the heads up. I'm going to start strapping my "flightbox' down.